Public involved in updating confusing and ambiguous Jasper zoning ordinance
Jasper opened the process of updating the 20-year-old (and older) zoning and subdivision control ordinances with a public meeting Wednesday night.
The ordinances that control the addition of housing, subdivisions, and businesses in Jasper hasn’t been updated since 1993. Driving the changes to the ordinance is Jasper’s continued quest to expand housing and business opportunities in the city in an orderly fashion while taking into account the addition and implementation of new technology.
“Our zoning and subdivision control ordinances are 20 years old, some parts are even older than that. It’s not to say that it has been bad, but it’s time for freshening,” Mayor Terry Seitz said.
Since the 1993 adoption of the current ordinance, Jasper has seen many changes. Those include the addition of the shopping complex built around the Super Walmart, St. Charles Street expansion, adding of green space, extension of Newton Street and technology advances that brought about cellphone towers.
These additions and technology implementations have connections to ordinances in one way or another. The city has realized that the current ordinances need to be adapted to work better with the needs of the community.
Wednesday night’s first public meeting on the topic was attended by members of a mayor’s advisory group and a few local citizens.
The consensus among the public that attended and members of the team is that the current ordinance is ambiguous and confusing the way it is written.
The city is seeking input from the public because this ordinance will have a direct impact in how the city implements any future expansion.
K.K. Gerhart-Fritz with the Planning Workshop in Indianapolis was there along with Aaron Kowalski of Ratio Incorportated, also from Indianapolis. They were hired by the city to help facilitate the process and lead in the meetings.
Gerhart-Fritz stated during the meeting that when you develop plans in a city, they encapsulate the visions and dreams, but they [plans] do not do anything to achieve those dreams. You need tools to make them happen and the tools of choice are zoning and subdivision ordinances.
During the meeting, the mayor was quick to point out that the ordinance produced from the process will be uniquely Jasper’s, not a one-size-fits-all approach.
“The reason that the ordinance is being updated is so that Jasper can get to the future that it wants for itself,” explained Gerhart-Fritz during the session.
The process will take 9 to 10 months to complete and there will be additional meetings for focus groups to provide input into the process.
“It is a significant investment by the city and the utilities that joined us in helping to fund this, we realized the outcome [new ordinance] will be one of the more important steps the city has taken in the last five years,” Seitz said.
The advisory group formed by the city has nine members.
- Paul Lorey – planning commission representative
- Josh Gunselman – board of zoning appeals representative
- Craig Knies – Construction and Development representative
- Nancy Eckerle – Jasper Chamber of Commerce and Jasper Action Team
- Andy Welsh – Dubois County Realtors representative
- Wayne Schuetter – Utilities representative
- Laura Grammer – Citizen member
- Mike Siebert – Citizen member
- Mark Hoffman – Citizen member
